New Market plans to double size of town and triple population

Growing Pains Loom For New Market Maryland Growth Plan will double town size and nearly triple population

(July 26, 2010) The Town of New Market developed plans to build 925 residences, heavy manufacturing, truck stops, warehouses, fast-food drive-thru restaurants, motels, commercial parking lots and gasoline stations on farmland. The annexation of the Smith/Cline, Delaplaine and Ganley farms will double the size of New Market, nearly triple its population. The plan also calls for carving out a new commuter expressway through parkland and sensitive areas and along the boundary of the Royal Oaks community.

The Smith /Cline farm will be developed into 925 residential units, yielding 575 pupils that will overcrowd local schools and cost county taxpayers $17 million in capital and generate operating costs for at least one more public school.

“Sprawl of this kind never pays for itself and has greatly contributed to the county’s current fiscal crisis” according to Janice Wiles, the executive director of Friends of Frederick County. “A development on this scale would only make matters much worse.”

In addition, Smith/Cline will generate an estimated 9,000 cars per day, greatly worsen traffic congestion and safety hazards on area roads, and lead to far more “cut-through” traffic in adjoining neighborhoods, such as Sponseller’s Addition and the Meadows, Wiles said.

New Market’s plan for the Delaplaine and Ganley farms is to develop the for commercial and industrial uses, that could generate heavy traffic, air pollution, noxious odors, noise, dust, glare, smoke, toxic chemicals and visual impacts that would adversely affect contiguous and nearby communities – such as Royal Oaks, Brinkley Manor and the Meadows.

“My Dad fought a truck stop in what is now the New Market Shopping Center in the early 1980’s” said Bud Rossig, long time New Market business owner. “Following in his footsteps I don’t believe that heavy manufacturing and truck stops are compatible with the family-oriented communities in New Market and will destroy the historic and rural character of our Town.

The Town’s growth proposal (known as a “Municipal Growth Element”) may be reviewed in full here.